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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:10:06 GMT -5
The Spectre had a classic run in Adventure Comics #431-440 (1974-75). At the time it was published it was pretty graphic. First the Spectre killed the bad guys. And the way he killed was often gruesome. No Super Villians - just regular criminals.
#431 - The Wrath of the Spectre - Michael Fleisher & Jim Aparo. In this story the Spectre goes after armored car robbers & melts one of them like he was made of wax! (And the screaming skeleton on the airplane - thanks shaxper!)
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 13:14:40 GMT -5
Oh, are you doing an issue by issue recap of the series? This is one of my favorite guilty pleasure reads of all time. I'll be curious to see if it gets decent representation in the CCF Long Halloween. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:16:04 GMT -5
#432 - The Anguish of the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. In this story we meet Jim Corrigan's new girlfriend Gwen Sterling when he is investigating the murder of her father. 3 criminals die in this story - one is cut in half by a giant pair of scissors, another turns to sand & the 3rd one ages rapidly until she dies of old age.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:17:46 GMT -5
Oh, are you doing an issue by issue recap of the series? This is one of my favorite guilty pleasure reads of all time. I'll be curious to see if it gets decent representation in the CCF Long Halloween. Yes. Just one or two sentence summaries. And yes I wanted to do it before Halloween.... |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 13:18:44 GMT -5
#432 - The Anguish of the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. In this story we meet Jim Corrigan's new girlfriend Gwen Sterling when he is investigating the murder of her father. 3 criminals die in this story - one is cut in half by a giant pair of scissors, another turns to sand & the 3rd one ages rapidly until she dies of old age.
View Attachment My favorite issue in the run in terms of sheer sadistic brutality. Of course, my other two favorite Spectre executions are the enormous duck and the screaming skeleton on the airplane. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:25:13 GMT -5
#433 - The Swami & the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. In this story a Swami is bilking rich old ladies. The Spectre executes his henchmen by having ghosts rise up in a cemetery & pull him into the ground burying him alive. The Swami meets his end by being turned into glass & shattered!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:33:42 GMT -5
#432 - The Anguish of the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. In this story we meet Jim Corrigan's new girlfriend Gwen Sterling when he is investigating the murder of her father. 3 criminals die in this story - one is cut in half by a giant pair of scissors, another turns to sand & the 3rd one ages rapidly until she dies of old age.
My favorite issue in the run in terms of sheer sadistic brutality. Of course, my other two favorite Spectre executions are the enormous duck and the screaming skeleton on the airplane. It's one of my favorites too, and the one I have signed by Jim Aparo when I got to meet him...love that splash page too  -M |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 13:37:53 GMT -5
In this story the Spectre goes after armored car robbers & melts one of them like he was made of wax! A little background on this. The Spectre had a poorly received revival in the Silver Age, and the one thing that book did well was circumvent the comics code. In one issue, The Spectre flies a criminal into Earth's orbit, then drops him, promising to catch him, and then inadvertently goes to tackle some other problem. Of course, we never hear nor see the "plop." In another, the Spectre turns a villain into a candle and then melts the candle while it screams. So having the guy melt without turning him into a candle first is a clear nod to this, as well as an acknowledgment that Fleischer and Aparo's goal was to unleash the full wrath of the Spectre that couldn't be shown during the years of the more tightly enforced comics code. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:39:24 GMT -5
#434 - The Nightmare Dummies & the Spectre - Fleisher with Frank Thorne (pencils) & Aparo (inks). Mannequins come to life. The creator of these mannequins - Zeke (who brings them to life with dark magic) - commits crimes with them. When Jim investigates - Zeke kidnaps Gwen & the Spectre turns Zeke into (you guessed it!) - a mannequin & Zeke gets thrown away & is destroyed in a fire.
This story is unique because Jim Aparo needed some help on art & editor Joe Orlando convinced Frank Thorne to pencil a story about "spooky mannequins". After it was published Thorne liked it. It was one of Fleisher's favorite Spectre stories.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2014 13:42:10 GMT -5
It was one of Fleisher's favorite Spectre stories that he wrote. I'll be curious to see whether or not you decide to go into the whole Harlan Ellison debacle... |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 13:56:59 GMT -5
#435 - The Man Who Stalked the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. Also in this issue a back up Aquaman story by Steve Skeates & Mike Grell!
This story introduces reporter Earl Crawford who is looking into the weird murders of criminals for Newsbeat Magazine. He gets assigned to follow Jim Corrigan by the police dept for PR. In a rare humorous moment Jim calls Earl "Clark Kent" & Aparo drew Earl to look similar to Clark. Earl gets more than he bargained for when he is an eyewitness to the Spectre's gruesome executions of criminals. One is frozen. Another is killed by a Thor action figure brought to life. The 3rd one is seen by Earl as the Spectre turns him into wood & runs him thru an industrial wood saw. Earl is horrified & screams at the Spectre " Couldn't you at least leave something for his family to bury?"
For me the series kicks into high gear with this issue.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:01:31 GMT -5
It was one of Fleisher's favorite Spectre stories that he wrote. I'll be curious to see whether or not you decide to go into the whole Harlan Ellison debacle... No. But for those that are curious:
Writer Harlan Ellison in a 1979 interview described Fleisher and his comics work as "crazy", "certifiable", "twisted", "derange-o", "bugfuck", and "lunatic". He also erroneously claimed that a Publishers Weekly review called Fleisher's novel Chasing Hairy "the product of a sick mind", and that Fleisher's Spectre series had been discontinued by DC Comics because the company "realized they had turned loose a lunatic on the world."[11] While some observers considered the diatribe humorous hyperbole,[12] Fleisher, saying his "business reputation has been destroyed" and believing he was falsely portrayed as insane, filed a $2 million libel suit against Ellison, publisher Gary Groth and the magazine in which the interview appeared, The Comics Journal.[13][14] The case came to court in 1986, and resulted in a verdict for the defendants.
Taken from Wikipedia.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 29, 2014 14:10:22 GMT -5
I'll be curious to see whether or not you decide to go into the whole Harlan Ellison debacle... No. But for those that are curious:
Writer Harlan Ellison in a 1979 interview described Fleisher and his comics work as "crazy", "certifiable", "twisted", "derange-o", "bugfuck", and "lunatic". He also erroneously claimed that a Publishers Weekly review called Fleisher's novel Chasing Hairy "the product of a sick mind", and that Fleisher's Spectre series had been discontinued by DC Comics because the company "realized they had turned loose a lunatic on the world."[11] While some observers considered the diatribe humorous hyperbole,[12] Fleisher, saying his "business reputation has been destroyed" and believing he was falsely portrayed as insane, filed a $2 million libel suit against Ellison, publisher Gary Groth and the magazine in which the interview appeared, The Comics Journal.[13][14] The case came to court in 1986, and resulted in a verdict for the defendants.
Taken from Wikipedia.
In the interview, Harlan was asked what comics he had enjoyed recently. He was actually praising Fleisher's Spectre series for being "crazy etc etc" .There are many authors who would have loved to have those Ellison's comments on the cover of their own book |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:13:40 GMT -5
Hey just because you're bats-t crazy doesn't mean you can'y write good stories......  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 14:15:36 GMT -5
#436 - My favorite issue. The Gasmen & the Spectre - Fleisher & Aparo. Plus another Aquaman story by Skeates & Grell.
A German (?) military officer commits crimes by killing his victims with nerve gas. He runs his criminal organization with military precision. The Spectre kills one of the criminals by turning him into part of the rock on an island. Two others he impales with artist's tools that he enlarges. The military commander tries to escape on a boat which the Spectre turns into a giant squid which then eats the commander! I love the description in the panel where the squid is eating him - " ...the giant squid stuffs the kicking, squirming victim into it's gaping, pulsating maw..."
Also Earl Crawford makes his last appearance in this story...Why? I don't know.
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